The Basques (thing)

The Basques are an enigmatic ethnic group who mostly live on the border between France and Spain, around the Pyrenees Mountains. There are between two and three million of them worldwide. Their literally unique language is covered in depth HERE.

Most evidence points to the Basque people as having lived in the same area for a truly vast amount of time. There are archaeological sites dating back to Cro-Magnon times on Basque turf, and while there isn't any direct evidence of continuity on that scale, there isn't much against it, either.

The big news in Basqueland lately is the terrorist organization that started up under Franco and continues to blow shit up and shoot people to this day. The IRA - yes, that's the Irish Republican Army - helped them reorganize in the early eighties into a bipolar militant / political setup, just like IRA and Sinn Féin. They want Basque independence. To make things more complicated, the Basque provinces in Spain and France have a high degree of autonomy, collecting their own taxes and holding their own parliament. I leave the moral issues to others.

Some crap I forgot. Recent genetic studies show that the Basques are most closely related to Celts. Considering the amorphous linege of the Celtic people, and the 10k+ years since they split, it don't say much. Basques are probably the oldest surviving ethnicity in Europe.